


It Was The End of the World as We Knew It

by Dragonsjustice



Category: Adventure Time, Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Billy the Hero, Fluff and Angst, Fluffy, My poor babies, Oww pain, Short One Shot, The Mushroom War, Well this is going places, Who the fuck knows why Tyler is Hunson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-07
Updated: 2015-11-08
Packaged: 2018-04-25 06:37:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4950385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonsjustice/pseuds/Dragonsjustice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Princess Bubblegum isn't her real name. It never has been.</p><p>Once, it didn't need to be.</p><p>Now a one shot collection.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Bubblegum

Bonnibel Bubblegum  _(but that's not really your name, is it?_ the traitorous part of her whispered softly) walked down the path away from her kingdom. 

Her bright pink  _(not brown brown brown like the earth and mud on a rainy day)_ hair was pulled back into a loose braid. Purple eyes gleamed out from underneath her hood, and she pulled the trench coat  _(no, not the trench coat. That one was gone and faded into dust over two thousand years)_ tighter around her shoulders with a sigh.

Bubblegum was nervous. Not scared-she hasn't been truly scared for a long time-, just nervous.

Jumpy.

Someone was following her, but she has already analyzed that they are not a threat.

"I can see you, Finn," she says with amusement.

The boy grins and hops out from behind one of the candy trees that line the road.

"How did you know that I was there?"

"Easy." She smiles and stops walking. "Your shoes crunch on the gravel and dirt. Your sword is bumping against your leg, and your clothes rub against each other. I could also hear you freestyle rapping a few minutes back."

He blushes scarlet under the moonlight. "I thought that I was being stealthy."

"Sneaky and stealthy are different things."

His next question surprises her. "PB, do you like the stars?"

It doesn't take her long to think of an answer.

"Yes. I love them. How they always stay the same, even though the world changes beneath them. How even though they're dead, they still shine just as brightly." 

And then maybe there are tears streaming down her face and her throat is choked with sobs as thin  _(wimpy noodle strong muscle please why won't the blood stop)_ arms wrap around her waist.

"I didn't mean to upset you," Finn says into her clothing. "I just... Wanted to know."

He's too innocent for his own good.

"It's alright," she sniffles. "I was only remembering someone very important to me."

"Can you... Tell me about them?" Finn asks shyly. 

"O-okay. But it's not a very happy story."

As the moon climbs higher in the sky above them, Bubblegum tells the last human on earth her story of pain.

About a brother and a sister who fought evil and still couldn't save each other. 

About how Princess Bubblegum had once been Mabel Pines, who had a brother who gave her his brain. 


	2. Sixer

She knew that he was alive. 

_(Unlike anybody else.)_

And she knew that he was a hero, who fought fairly and took what was given to him.

She knew that he recognized her from the minute that she set foot in his cave.

But that didn't change the satisfaction of driving her fist into his _(different different they were all so different)_ face.  


"You asshole!" She screamed, not caring if anybody heard her. "Why would you just-I mean, are you fucking kidding me right now with this bullshit?!"

He was obviously surprised to see her, this so called 'hero.'

_ (Liar liar liar you're no hero.) _

Had he thought her dead, just like most of the others were?

Did he mourn?

She grabbed sword from his pile and tried to run him through with it, but he simply plucked the blade from her hands and stared at her.

"You're alive," he whispered. "I thought-oh,  _Prismo._  You're alive!"

She felt all of the anger leech out of her at those words.

"Yes," she replied, equally softly. "I am."

He looked beyond her as if there might be answers hidden there. 

"Are the others-"

The hope in his voice died when she shook her head.

"Well, two of them are," she ammended quickly. "Sort of."

"Sort of?"

"I can't tell you their real names," she warned. 

He sighed. "I expected as much. Who?"

"Sweetness and Dagger."

They stayed silent for a while, and she tried not to look at the thinly veiled disappointment on his face because it wasn't the people that he so desperately wanted to hear.

After a few minutes, he spoke again. "Mabel-"

"No." She interrupted him. "That's not my name." 

_ (Mabel is dead and gone since blood on a knife and yellow eyes.) _

He nodded. She knew that he was going by a different name now too.

_(But he still writes books for heroes heroes senseless adventurers.)_

"What do you want me to call you?"

"I've been going by Bonnibel Bubblegum for the past few centuries."

He smiled at her. "I recognize that name. Your the princess of the Candy Kingdom."

"Pleasure." She stands and curtsies. Later, there will be time for stories and screaming and explanations. 

But for now, she'd rather just spend time with her great uncle-the man who changed the world.


	3. Nightosphere

He can still remember when he was normal. 

_(Not the king of his own realm with a daughter to look after and no more love love love love.)_

But he hasn't been normal for a long time. 

_(Not since the love of his life fell to their own axe by a nightmare creature that killed their sons but not daughter not daughter not daughter.)_

He can rule this kingdom with an iron fist for as long as he pleases, but it won't bring the rest of his family back.

No matter how much he misses them.

W-no,  _Marceline,_ doesn't understand. 

She can still recall almost all of her life before she was de-aged, but not quite all of it. 

_(Not the pain pain pain agony of loosing his husband her father father father.)_

Sometimes he misses being human.

Not always.

But when being a king gets to be too much, he can remember. 

_ (Kissing laughter wood splitting axes family home home home.) _

The world has changed without him, however. 

Marceline brings him news of the outside world whenever she comes to visit, bringing with her stories of Candy People ruled by someone familiar, adventurous boys too curious for their own good, and sucking the red out of things.

_ (Like her long gorgeous familiar hair.) _

For now, he can stay Hunson Abadeer. 

But if the pain gets too much, he can remember being plain old Tyler.


	4. Be More

They're more than just a bot. 

They aren't human, they aren't a boy, they aren't a girl, and they aren't just another MO.

They thought that meeting their maker, fixing their faulty programming, would make them feel better. 

But it didn't. 

They just couldn't shake the feeling that they were meant to be something bigger than themselves. 

That they had been, once. 

Now it's all code and numbers that are supposed to be their personality, but aren't. 

They're... Different. 

The code inside of them is different too.

**Be more. Be more. Be more. Be more.**

It repeats over and over and over again.

Their creator said that they were built to care for his son.

But they know that there is much more to it than that. 

** Be more. Be more. Be more.  **

** B e   m o r e. **

** You are not just a MO. **

They believe the program more often than not, and when they don't they are written off as a glitch. 

Another defective MO.

Bubblegum is the one who teaches them about the Mushroom War. 

About what it meant to fight for what you believed was right. 

Where everyone was dying and living all at the same time in a beautiful symphony of DNA spilling out onto the ground.

It is Bubblegum who teaches them new words to describe themselves, even though it doesn't really matter in this day and age of the future.

She helps them feel confident. 

She says that she is returning a favor. 

Sometimes, they play games together instead. Games with weird names like "Truth or Dare or Don't."

Or they read old books from even before the war that are practically crumbling into dust, but Bubblegum still laughs at them. 

She even lets them pick a name for themselves, other than the one that their creator gave them. 

**Lila Lucy Lucky Luke Lola Kaya Maya Isabel Samantha Samuel Drake Hattie Harrison Jacob Jenny Joshua Quincy Paige Grenda Grenda Grenda Grenda GrendaGrendaGrendaGrenda.**

That name means something, but they don't say anything. 

Instead, they pick an even more familiar name. Sure, it might get confusing sometimes, but it is _theirs._

**Sweet Sugar Spice Sunshine Candy Candy Candy Candy.**

**Candy.**


	5. Pink

They dated for a little while, after the war. When they were still struggling to find each other again after losing everything _(him her him her all of them)_. 

They were good together, there's simply no denying it. 

She's never had a problem dating whoever she pleases, and neither has We-Marceline. 

The world shouldn't have changed that much-but they're still accepting, because now there are far bigger things to worry about than who is in love with who.

_(It's a good thing, because before when she had a crush on Pa-Golden, their parents made her stop.)_

But they split apart because of disagreements screamed at the sky and at each other. 

_(How had that fight even started, anway? Was it when she made a small side comment that slowly slowly spiralled down into an inky abyss of anger and fury?)_

Now they act like it never happened. Like they were never in love under white starry pinpricks and radioactive skies as the world fell down around them. 

Maybe it's better that way. 

_(It doesn't feel that way.)_

Finn has a massive crush on her, and it makes her sad sometimes because he's so much like Di- _him_ that it hurts. 

Marceline can feel it too, much stronger than she can. 

Mabel misses calling her Wendy. 


	6. Neddy

She was lying when she told Finn and Jake that Neddy was her brother.

_(He isn't. She doesn't have a brother anymore anymore anymore.)_

Yes, they had both been "born"  _(reborn)_ from the same thing, but it was not her first time being alive. It was simply a different form, a mask, a pink costume that she named Bonnibel Bubblegum. 

But Neddy...

He was purely fabricated from the Mother Gum, a new creation in this horrific new world. But she accepted him as her family, her brother, her  _twin._

 _(But he can't replace her brother brother brother who poured his life force out into her hands as she screamed cried begged for him to stay awake stay alive stay_ _with_ **her.)**

Besides, in her weaker moments  _(when she needs to remember)_ she can go down there and pretend that it's  _him_ again, that she isn't virtually alone in the world now.

It's one of the reasons why she hates the newest King of Ooo.

She's pretty sure that it might actually be _him,_ be  _Preston,_ although he's obviously forgotten everything by now.

Good. 

_(She has never forgiven him for what he's done to Golden, for what he did to them all.)_

She's also pretty sure that We-Marceline hates him too, because she stops by complaining and asking about why she's sitting in a pumpkin patch with Peppermint Butler.

_(It's adorable how he used to think that she had no idea of his dark practices.)_

They hunt varmints together, using the old earth words for what look like the children of one of B- _His_ dark criminal friends. _Teeth,_ she thinks.  _It looks like the one that D-he said was called Teeth. The one that almost ate him._

Ha!

She hasn't thought of that in ages, and she honestly doesn't regret it.

_(She used to regret it.)_

You shouldn't dwell on the past, but sometimes you have to remember it.

For the sake of the present, for the sake of the  _now,_ you have to remember what you've lost and won.

Who you've lost.

The survivors gather without a word at the tall pillar near the edge of the forest beside the Candy Kingdom. 

The start to carve it with names.

Can-Sweetness-BMO goes first engraving a word with their tiny little hands.

_(Grenda.)_

F-Billy is second. His is long and labored, and she realizes that the last time that she saw him was after he faked his own death by the hands of the  _Lich._ **Abomination.**

_(Stanley Pines.)_

Then, to their surprise, he puts another beneath it, and Mabel recalls something that she once heard  _(saw)._

_(Fiddleford Hadron McGucket.)_

Next is We-Dagge-Marceline. She writes a long series of names, one on top of the other.

_(Tambry._

_Robbie Valentino._

_Thompson._

_Lee._

_Nate._

_Pacifica Elise Northwest._

_Jesus Ramirez._

_Susan Wentworth._

_Hank Corduroy._

_John Corduroy._

_Tate McGucket._

_Simon Petrikov._

_Tad Strange._

_Blendin Blenjamin Blandin._

_Bud Gleeful._

_Mary Gleeful._

_Gideon Gleeful._

_Jason Poolcheck.)_

Then she runs out of names and gives the tool to her father.

He writes only one name, because the others have both been carved out for him.

_(Daniel Corduroy.)_

Then... Then it is her turn, and she fills the rest of the pillar with names.

All of the ones that she can remember and more, the descriptions of those that she cannot truly give identities to.

The most important name, however, is at the top.

_(Dipper Pines.)_

* * *

That's when they start the book.

_(It looks like the journals (123) did, but there's no number.)_

Everyone helps, with a person that the need to remember on each page, along with things that the can't let themselves forget.

The name of Grenda's iguana.

The smell of the dorms at Backupsmore University.

What wood feels like when it isn't fully sanded but it won't be long before it is.

Blendin's stutter  _(the one that she gave to Lemongrab the mistake.)_

What Stan looked like before and after the  _p o r t a l damned mac **hine stole away** -_they stop writing that part, but Marceline finishes it for them.

What it feels like to kiss someone with a beard.

Dance parties that you always win and never lose because there is no winning or losing in a dance party.

Preston's smug smirk that they all hated.

How Fiddleford liked his coffee.

Simon's favorite song.

Soos's love of arcade games.

Robbie's terrible taste in makeup.

The smell of Gideon's hairspray.

Tad's uncanny love of bread.

Tambry's texting obsession.

Thompson's sweet personality.

Lee and Nate's friendly rivalry.

Poolcheck's weirdness.

It would be a terrible crime to forget these things.

Now they never will.

 


End file.
